My cubical

I have a cubical at an office I do some consulting and they asked me to decorate my cubical so people know it is used and not empty. I had some prints at home that I brought in and realized after putting them up I started something.

You see the prints that are up in my office are 20″ x 30″ prints. As groups go on tours through the office I have noticed they are paying attention to my cubical. I am helping everyone know what I enjoy doing.

A consultant’s cubical at the same office

 Now as I walk by other people’s cubicles I realize you must actually go into their cubical to see their photos and know who is in them.

The reason you want to put up photos is not just for yourself, you are helping people know something about you.

This is true also with your home. You don’t want people to have to walk across the room to see your family portrait or another image that you took. They should be able to enjoy it from across the room.

What size print? Use the face size as a guide.  Have the face size the same as a clock face. If it were on your wrist then maybe a 4″ x 6″ print is fine. Same photo on a wall may require a 40″ x 60″ print to have the same affect.

One of the best ways to determine the best size is to project the image on the wall.  The general rule would be in a normal size living room 20′ x 24′ is a face size of at least 3″ to 5″. 

If the person is part of a scene you may need a very large print. If however the photo is a head and shoulder portrait then a smaller print will work.

My friend now has larger prints up of water projects she did around the world. She is always raising money to help drill wells to help in places there is no fresh water. What a great way to use photos to keep her passion in front of her co-workers.

Besides using photos in your office at work to help people know your passions, use photos throughout your office to help communicate your companies passions.

This nonprofit uses large photos of the children’s lives it touches.

With people coming and going throughout your offices each day are you using the wall space to help communicate your story?  You should and give me a call and I will help you have photos that tell your story.

Much of this blog is based on my reading of the book Beating the Commodity Trap: How to Maximize Your Competitive Position and Increase Your Pricing Powerby Richard Anthony D’Aveni. Read it for a more comprehensive understanding of avoiding being a commodity than I am giving here.

D’Aveni says, “The arrival of a dominant low-end player shakes up the market power of the industry, as Southwest did in the airline industry, Dell once did in computers, or Walmart is still doing in retailing. It is very hard for incumbents to compete with these disruptive players using their existing cost structures.”

These are the signs of a Deteriorating Market for D’Aveni

• A dominant low-cost competitor has emerged in your market, disrupting the status quo.
• The economies of scale enjoyed by the disrupting company make it impossible for you to compete on price.
• Customers are less and less willing to pay for additional benefits such as superior service and industry expertise.
• Your margins are falling and you are losing market share, even though you have lowered prices and product benefits to catch up with the competition.

We have to concede the low-end price market and step aside. Photographer John Harrington talks about a client of his chose another photographer for something he did annually for them and were disappointed. The following year when they came back to John he realized he had a niche´. John not only got the job but he raised his price knowing they didn’t want to get burned again.

I don’t think there is a quick fix to the deterioration of prices being paid for coverage of sporting events.

I do think where there are no spec shooters and low ball photographers shooting events are places for profit to be found.

If we are not careful we will become like moths drawn to a flame. We need to remember the saying “Don’t fall in love with the car.” It will make it difficult for you to make a sound business decision.

If you have fallen in love with standing on the sidelines of sporting events with your camera, you are prone to helping deteriorate the industry even more. Once more you will deteriorate your own bank account to support your habit.

If what you offer (photography) is similar to a large group of photographers then you are just a commodity and the low price will always get the job. Basically, you can’t tell the difference between one company’s product and another’s. When something is viewed as a commodity, it generally means that the only difference is the price tag.

If you cannot distinguish yourself from other photographers in a way that customers desire, you will have a very hard time making a living. Sometimes you may have to leave a certain niche´ due to saturation.

 

In May 2002 these were in my camera bag. I had two Nikon F100 cameras and was shooting mostly with Provia 100F transparency film.

It has been ten years since I went full-time freelance. It is time to celebrate.

As I look back over these ten years I have made some really great decisions and not so great decisions.

Good Decisions Made

Digital Capture

Going digital from film was the best decision I could have made. The timing couldn’t have been better for me.

In 2001 the Nikon Digital Camera at the time cost about $15,000. In 2002 Nikon introduced the Nikon D100 in the $1,500 price range. The timing was perfect to jump into digital.  The cameras were rivaling the film of the day.

Back in 1993 I was using PhotoShop and scanning my images from film. This was very time consuming, but this helped me make the switch to digital capture enjoyable.

Even earlier in 1987 I bought my first computer and was active on CompuServe. I was enjoying bulletin boards before the World Wide Web which would take off in 1995 with Mosaic being introduced.

Laptop

As you can see I had already been using computers and digital imaging for many years before I went freelance full-time. 

November 10, 2002 in Mossy Grove in eastern Tennessee a tornado hit. I was called and asked to go and cover it the next day. On November 11, 2002 I bought my first laptop computer.

While I new how to download images and transmit them, covering that Tornado was the first time I was transmitting photos from the field.


Cell phone as modem

In August 2004 I was asked to cover hurricane Charley.  I would shoot images in the earlier morning at a location, jump in my car and edit those images. I then would transmit using my cell phone that was tethered to my laptop to transmit images. Since the computer just needed to run for a while, I would drive while it was in the passenger seat transmitting.

The client and newspapers all over the country were shocked that I was getting images out when telephone lines were down and power was out.  I was building my reputation as the guy who was able to use technology before my competition.

Today I shoot with the Nikon D4.

Continuous Upgrades

I have gone through a number of cameras since 2002. I shot the Nikon D100, Nikon D2x, Nikon D2Xs, Nikon D3, Nikon D3S and today I am shooting with a Nikon D4.  I did these upgrades to keep me giving my clients the best possible images I could produce technically.

I have upgraded software programs like PhotoShop, PhotoMechanic, Lightroom, Microsoft Office and more regularly.  Each time the improvements and performance more than paid off over time.

Switch from PC to Mac

For many years I was a PC guy. However, during these years I also helped many people with their Macs. From 1993 to 2002 I had Macs to work with and due to this knowledge I was helping organizations on the side as their IT guy.

Two years ago I had another PC laptop give me a lot of trouble.  I had learned I was loosing a lot of time trying to fix this, so I bought a new PC laptop with Windows 7 and it ran on i7 processor.  It was fast. Less than a few months later the laptop screen went blue.

While I had everything backed up, I could not get that new laptop to work completely after reformatting the drive and starting over. I lost two to three weeks of long days trying to make it work.

Dorie, my wife, gave me the best advice–go buy a Macbook Pro.  She had a Mac and knew I was spending more and more time fixing my computer and she rarely had to do anything with her computer.

It was the best decision I had made as far as computers. I knew I could buy a faster PC for about half the cost of a Mac and this is what kept me buying PCs.  I was saving money.

Dorie pointed out to me my time was money.  Lesson learned about how important my time was to our family and me.

My cell phone today. Motorola Razr Maxx. It lets me connect wireless to the web over 4G network in most places and lets me see my emails instantaneously.

Smart Phone

While on photo shoots in those first few years as a freelancer I would stop and take a break and check my email.  It would take about 3 to 5 minutes to start-up my laptop to check those emails.

I was starting to also see a shift in the expectancy of customers for you to respond to the emails being timelier.

The cost of a smart phone like the PC verses Mac was expensive.  The monthly financial commitment to the higher cost kept me from getting one for a long time.

Once again Dorie pointed out to me how important it was to get one for me. “It is a business decision,” she told me. It will help you make more money if you can respond quicker to job possibilities.

She was right–as always.

Today I use the Motorola Razr Maxx because it is the fastest phone on the market with the longest battery life. I charge it at night and when I plug it in at the end of the day it usually still has 60 – 70% of a charge left.  I am now able to connect my computer and iPad to the web using it’s 4G hotspot. I am able to connect in many places at a faster speed than my cable connection at home.

Spouse

The best decision I have ever made was marrying Dorie. Having a spouse who supports you as a freelance photographer is very important. Her father ran his own business and I think she learned a lot just growing up in a home of an entrepreneur. 

While I lost many nights of sleep worrying about how we will pay our bills, Dorie never doubted my abilities. She never told me to look for another job.

I have watched many of my friends whose largest obstacle for success is their spouse. Having a supportive partner can get you through just about anything.

Dorie is taken so if you don’t have a spouse, be sure you find someone who believes in you and can walk by faith. I believe God helped me find such a wonderful wife and mother to our children.


Bad decisions made

Lack of Faith

My number one mistake that I continue to make is thinking that I am in control of my destiny. No question if I don’t get up and work hard I will not succeed, but just because I do that does not guarantee success.

I really think it is my faith in God that has sustained me the most. I believe there is a God in control on the universe. I do not think we are all puppets either, but I do believe he works in peoples hearts and minds and due to this it is God who has helped me more than anything at all. My mistake is not acknowledging this daily.

Saving Pennies while Loosing Dollars

I grew up with a Irish and Scotch heritage. My parents watched every penny and I learned the value of a dollar from them.

My mistake has been that driving around town to find the cheapest gas can actually cost you more than you save. 

While I don’t have time to research expenditures made, I try to do my best to get the best value. My mistake has not to value my time as money. I believe outsourcing some of the things I do to those who can do it better or at least remove this from my plate is something I will be trying to do more in the future.

Staying with PCs too long

I most likely have lost months of my life working on my PCs trying to fix the registry and defragging my hard drives.  You see every program on a PC interacts with all the other programs through the registry.  I was using so many different programs and they ended up over time screwing up the computer.

My programs on my Mac do not interact through a registry like on the PC. They really don’t affect each other and therefore over time I am not having the same corruption problems I was having on my PC.

Slow to my competition as my colleagues

Today I try to get together with other photographers as often as I can. I not only like to hear what they are doing, I am willing to share a good amount of what I am doing. Of course if I have something that gives me a competitive advantage I am careful sharing this.

Today some of my photographer colleagues are some of my clients. They get too busy and call me to help them out. I too return the favor.

Today I enjoy working with more people I call my friends than any other point in my life. How did this happen?  I am now focusing on building relationships and this is how my business has grown.  Prior to learning this secret I was trying to build me up.

Thanks for reading and being apart of my celebrating ten years.

While this photo shows everyone in a room at a meeting and even an interesting angle, you need photos showing people being engaged.  This is a photo that is important to have. You need photos helping to show the size of the meeting and location. This helps establish how important this meeting is to the company.

If you were to calculate the cost of meetings it would shock most of us. Just how effective and important are these to your organization?

Meetings are important and help in business or they wouldn’t be done. However, if you are the one putting one on you quickly discover how important it is to get all you can out of the investment.

Photography is one of the best ways to help stretch your budget.

Training a sales force on how to use the iPad with their companies resources. This photo is helping show what was presented and who was presenting. Also, it is important that you capture a moment where you can see the presenter is enthusiastic about the material. Just a shot with the elements will not inspire people. This is a medium shot which is needed to help bring the reader into the content. If you have an iPad or iPhone you will quickly recognize iBooks. You might want to know why is this being taught at a meeting. This will inspire you to read more of the text.

Improve Retention of Content

You can have a photographer cover your event and then use the photos to help put the content online for the rest of your company. It also helps those who attended review what was covered and improve retention of the material.

This is a good example of what a photojournalist can capture for you during a meeting. They will help capture moments showing people are interested and engaged in the material. Here the two sales people are helping each other learn how to use the iPad. This photo also celebrates your employees. When your workforce sees that others are interested this helps using peer pressure to get them on board. If you let the photographer know which folks you would like to try and get photos of doing this, then they can try and capture it. As you know some people showing interest will have more impact than another.

This is a photo that not only shows audience participation, but the face expressions shows genuine interest in the topic. You see interaction from all in the photo. A person talking, people listening and even getting two people to turn towards the person to hear better.

Celebrate your people

When a photographer is pointing a camera towards your people in a meeting, they know this is important or the company wouldn’t have a photographer their. This is like the red carpet treatment for your employees.

People will sit up and pay more attention when they are on camera. They also get excited when they later see these photos in publications or online. This recognition can help them feel good about themselves and the company.

A good photographer is going to be aware of capturing these moments where people are engaged.

Having people look at the camera and smile is not the same as catching them in a real situation. This authentic moment will help communicate a message as well as authentically show them participating.

Having activities for the participants will help them retain information better than a pure lecture. These also translate into wonderful photo opportunities. Here the photographer is trying to capture the activity engaging the people.

Photographers will give you good detail shots as well as the personal interaction. This photo with the one above it will help talk about not just an activity, but what they company is now emphasizing. The detail shot in combination with the other photo now helps tell a more complete story.  It is a faster read than had you written text about it. Also, the text would have a difficult time explaining how interested the participants are in the content.

Its about relationships

Your photos will help do something that cannot be done with text as effectively. It helps show the relationships.

Before the meeting is even officially started, you can see relationships that communicate the family atmosphere for your company.

While you think the photos are just to communicate what happened at a meeting, this type of photograph is something a recruiter could use to show how much people like working with the company. I can see this and the photo above communicating how the company is a place where relationships are encouraged and to create a family atmosphere.

Too often companies focus on the wrong type of photos. Sure you may want photos of people receiving awards, but other than the person getting the award who else would really want the photo.

This is a typical awards photo that happens quickly on stage. These are good photos to make prints and give to the person receiving the award.

Too many companies use only these award photos in their publications after a meeting. Do you think having 30+ of these award photos really is the best use of photography or do you think the other photos above can help you more?  Why not make prints of all the award winners and give these to those in the photos?

You need both, but remember you can use photography to communicate and not just celebrate.

How to help your photographer

• What is the purpose of the photography? You need to be able to give a clear direction on why you need the photos.
• Who is the audience? A photographer needs to know the audience. Shooting for the media, your internal company people or to give photos to the award recipients makes a huge difference in approach.
• What medium will it be used in? If all the photos are going to be part of a video later, then the photographer will probably shoot more horizontals than verticals. This is true also if it is primarily being used on the web.
• Have someone assigned to the photographer. This is important for a new photographer working with you. They could benefit as to someone pointing out key people in a room. This person should not be a micro manager. Too much direction to a seasoned pro can actually stifle the creative process. They should help point out the key people that have been predetermined as important to the story.  That is the CEO and this is the major donor can help the photographer then capture a moment where they may be interacting very naturally. This is almost always a better photo than when they CEO call them up and they have an official moment on stage. Having a photographer who you use regularly and understands you should be something you are willing to pay a little more for, because you will be saving costs on someone with them all the time.
• When is your deadline? A photographer needs to know before the estimate is given when you expect the photos in your hand.
• What is the deliverable? Will the photographer give you a DVD of high resolution, low resolution or a combination? Are you wanting these delivered as an online gallery where you can order prints and/or download high to low resolution photos?
• What is the dress code? While most professionals will dress professionally, be sure they know this is a black tie event or if everyone is expected to wear jeans.  Sometimes you may require them to wear all black since you are having video crews shooting and having them in all black when they are near the stage will look better.
• Give them directions and time expectations. Be sure and provide parking close to the event. These photographers will be bringing tens of thousands of dollars of equipment.  For their safety and security be sure they are not walking blocks back to their car after an event. Let them know when you expect them to be onsite.  Do not assume they know you expect them an hour before the event starts onsite–tell them. 
• Give clear billing instructions. Be sure they know who is to get the invoice. If they need to provide a W-9 form to be paid, tell them to do so when they send the invoice. If there is a PO# required by accounts payable for them to be paid–get that to them right away.

Photographers should be capturing moments like this where the speakers are engaged on the topic and where the audience is also excited. Now the photographer cannot shoot what doesn’t exist, but few employees would not want to look engaged when a photographer is present.

Good meeting photography will not be all smiles. Here you can see this guy is thinking and engaged. I think the reason for most meetings is to give people new material. Showing the employees digesting the material is showing them engaged.

Did you hire the right photographer?

If you did not provide the information to the photographer and they don’t ask about those topics–it is a good clue you have a rookie or a clueless photographer.

When you get the photos you will also know if you got the right photographer. Do you see moments of people interacting with each other or only posed looking into the camera? If only posed–you hired the wrong photographer.

Hire a pro every once in a while, even if you shoot most meetings

Why would you hire a pro when you know how to take a photo? On the job training for one. I know many organizations that have so many meetings they cannot afford to hire a photographer all the time. Be careful not to never hire a photographer.

Try and hire a seasoned pro once in a while so you can learn from them. Your photography will improve when you see what they are doing.

Knolan Benfield in Hawaii with me helping teach posing to photography students with Youth With a Mission. (Photo by: Dennis Fahringer)

I don’t do all I do alone.  This is who I call my photo team.  They help me as assistants or when a client calls and I cannot do the job. This is who I call regularly.
 

Photo Assistants

Today I use photo assistants as much as possible. The reason, the client gets a much better product whenever I do.

Now I have posted various things on lighting for example that for the most part I have an assistant helping me with setting up photos and moving lights. I often joke about assistants as VALS. That stands for Voice Activated Light Stand.

One of my favorite photo assistants to use is my uncle Knolan Benfield. He taught me so much about this industry and he has such a great personality that he makes me much better when he is along.

You can see some of Knolan’s work on his website http://knolanbenfieldphotography.com/.  Knolan is also a writer in addition to being a photographer and sometimes my photo assistant.

Laura Deas is another one of my photo assistants. I met Laura when she was a nanny while going to school for photography. I was most impressed with her people skills and work ethic. This was before I ever saw her abilities as a photographer.

Being a photo assistant requires a lot of lifting of heavy bags. You might think that it is a man’s job, well I can tell you that Laura can out perform most any assistant I know.

One of the ways you first encounter her confidence is in her hand shake. It is amazing the confidence she exudes.

Laura shoots as well as a professional photographer. She does weddings, portraits, events and commercial. Here is her website http://www.lauradeasphotography.com.


More Photo Colleagues

Both Knolan Benfield and Laura Deas I call upon to do assignments when I cannot do them. It is quite common that a client will call me to do a job and due to another client already booking me I am not available.

I make it a priority to take care of my clients. I know most of the time better than they do who would be a good fit for a particular job. For the most part I go with someone who is near to them to help them out.

Robin Nelson is another photographer I like to call when I am unavailable. Robin and I have been both represented by Black Star agency in New York for more than 30 years. Whenever Ben Chapnick or before him Howard Chapnick needed someone in Atlanta one of us would get the call.

Robin has shot for all the major magazines you could think of and just about every other major media outlet. New York Times, Newsweek, Associated Press and the list could go on forever with Robin. He continues to get called back over and over for good reasons.

In my role as a consultant at Chick-fil-A for the past four years I have had to call freelancers to help us out. In corporate work how you handle yourself with people is far more important than the photos.

The first thing we want to know when we send a photographer somewhere is did everyone like them and would they like having them come again.

Second, we also need someone who can get the shot at the highest quality for the situation. This requires more people sensitivity. Sometimes using lights will be more distracting and cause undo attention. We need someone who can make it happen at the highest quality and looking for ways to always make it happen.

Here is a link to Robin’s website: http://www.assignmentatlanta.com/

Gary Chapman is another person I like to hire when I am unavailable or maybe he is the best photographer for the job.

Gary never takes on a job that he will not deliver back to you at the highest level in the industry. He is often asked to speak at photographers conferences around the world because his ability to talk about why he chooses to work a certain way.

Many photographers can shoot, few can articulate and teach photography. Gary has a lot of patience with teaching photographers how to use very complex software like PhotoShop and Lightroom.

This attention to detail is why he has made a living in stock photography for most of his career. His stock photography is conceptual and helps visualize concept that are popular in what is trending. This requires photographers to know what is trending. The best in this industry like Gary are the ones who can anticipate the trends and have images ready for when clients are looking for something to help illustrate a point.

Gary’s attention to detail shows not just in his photos but how he works with people. While many may think Gary is quite in conversations, he is actually thinking and wanting to join in. When he does it is like a flow of understanding people are so thrilled to hear. He cares not just about the topic, but how to discuss it with those he is in conversation with at that moment.  He is sensitive to moments and cultures.

This sensitivity is why he is sought after by companies and nonprofits that work around the world. Gary’s ability to capture moments is just as incredible as his ability to create them.

Gary is a humanitarian photographer, that uses photojournalism, documentary, portraits and even some of his stock style to help organizations tell their story effectively.

To see Gary’s work go here http://garyschapman.com/

What do all these photographers have in common?

Why do I use these photographers when there are many others out there to choose from? There are many out there that even they would say are better photographers than them.

However, the thing they have going for them is the way they treat people. Each one has a good reputation as treating people with honor, dignity and respect.

Things not to do as a photographer

Rather than telling you all the good things these photographers continue to do, let me list a few things that some of what I thought my colleagues have done and I no longer call them.

• Don’t try and take a client away from a photographer, when you got the job because that photographer referred you to the client. You may always say to the client if the photographer is busy I am more than willing to help out. 
• Don’t stick it to the client who is in a pinch and charge more than the photographer who recommended you.
• Don’t stick it to the photographer who recommended you and undercut their prices. Ask the photographer who is recommending you what they normally charge. Try to help them out. 
• Don’t assume the next time this client called they checked with the other photographer. Try your best to tactfully as possible to see if they checked with the other photographer. 

It is possible you are a better fit for the client than the other photographer. Call and tell the photographer that this client is calling you directly. You may want to turn down a job sometimes for the friendship that could come apart by taking the job.

My recommendation when a client calls like this is to be sure you are now more expensive than the other photographer.  If you are less, then this is a good indication of you getting the job for undercutting and not because you are a better fit–you are just cheap.

Do you have friends that you can refer work to over and over?

The key to being sure you have someone to call when you need help is to be that dependable person to others as well.

Knolan, Laura, Robin and Gary are all still very successful photographers. I think the reasons they are successful is the same reasons I want to hire them.

If you have photographer friends and they never call you to help them out, ask them who they use in a pinch and why. There is no need to confront them on why they don’t use you. It is valuable to see if they use anyone.  Maybe they never call anyone because they are not that busy.

However, if they do use someone other than you, this might help you take some time for introspection to see what you can do to be more desirable.